The present invention generally relates to an apparatus having two capabilities, operable one at a time, for projecting an image on a viewing screen and reproducing the image on a recording medium and, more particularly, to a combined reader-printer apparatus of a type comprising a combination of projector and printer.
A combined reader-printer apparatus of the type referred to above is well known and is currently largely utilized in, for example, libraries, laboratories or any other establishments where storage and/or tracing a vast accumulation of information are frequently carried out. According to the prior art, in order to manufacture the apparatus in a compact and sophisticated size, some of elements forming a projector optical system are concurrently utilized as element for a printer optical system, and vice versa. An example of this is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,532, issued July 15, 1980. However, a difficulty has been involved not only in a rational concurrent utilization of some elements of both of the optical systems, but also in making each of the optical systems compact, for the purpose of minimizing the apparatus as a whole with an available space utilized efficiently.
Moreover, where the printer used in the apparatus is constituted by an electrophotographic copying machine of scanning exposure type wherein consecutive portions of an image to be reproduced on a copying paper are projected onto a photoreceptor surface while the latter is moved relative to the incoming light carrying such consecutive portions of the image, an attempt to make the apparatus compact in size requires the employment of a compact and efficient means for absorbing or damping shocks which would be generated when some movable part supporting some elements of the printer optical system being moved are brought to a halt.
The previously mentioned U.S. patent discloses a combined reader-printer apparatus wherein the printer optical system in constituted by first and second movable reflector and a fixed reflector for guiding rays of light carrying an optical image to be reproduced on a copying paper from an original holder towards the photoreceptor drum. Of these reflectors, the first movable reflector concurrently forms a part of the reader optical system. In this construction, when and so long as the apparatus is set to operate as a printer, i.e., in a printer mode, the first and second movable reflectors are moved in respective directions perpendicular to each other in synchronism with the rotation of the photoreceptor drum.
In this prior art apparatus, since the movable reflectors move in the different directions, not only are separate guides one for each of the first and second movable reflector required, but also the first and second movable reflectors are susceptible to fail in synchronization. Specifically, the use of the separate guides renders a drive system as a whole for moving the first and second movable reflectors to be complicated and bulky in structure.